Marvel Comics has a long history of controversy when it comes to creators’ rights. Technically, it’s not just a Marvel Comics problem, but a problem with all publishers that do “work-for-hire” projects. The issue is that folks like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and the rest of the Marvel Comics writers and artists over the decades can create characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, etc. without getting any sort of financial royalties for their creations because it’s all done under a contract with Marvel. Well, it appears that Marvel now finds itself in a bit of a legal battle stemming from this creators’ rights debates, and if successful, it could mean Marvel (and thus, Marvel Studios) loses the rights to some of the biggest ‘Avengers’ characters in existence.
According to a report from THR, Marvel has fined a lawsuit against the estates of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Gene Colan, who are some of the forefathers of Marvel Comics. The purpose of the lawsuit is to hold onto the copyright claims to various Marvel characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, and others. The comic book publisher hopes the courts can settle the debate, saying that Marvel owes the creative rights to these characters and thus, the copyright is the company’s to uphold.
The issue stems from the estates of Lee, Kirby, and Colan, who feel as if the copyright to those Marvel characters should revert to them in 2023, under the termination provisions of copyright law. These provisions say that the authors or their heirs can claim the copyrights to materials created after a set period of time, which would expire in June 2023. If this is found to be the case, Marvel would lose control of those characters, giving the copyright to the estates of the men who created them.
Obviously, there’s a lot of legal details that have to be combed through, but the basics are always the same in these sorts of disagreements. Marvel and DC have been targeted by lawsuits over the rights to characters for decades. For some of those suits, the large companies have won. Others mostly have been settled out of court. So, it’s unclear what is going to end up happening here, but you would have to assume Disney/Marvel isn’t going to do anything that would result in the Mouse House losing the rights to the biggest cash cow in popular culture right now.
This most recent legal bout is just the latest in a long line of creators’ rights debates that have sprung up since Marvel Studios has been making billion-dollar films for the past decade. Obviously, folks like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, and Steve Ditko have been unhappy to see their creations earn billions of dollars while they didn’t receive consistent royalty payments and barely a mention of their involvement in the creation of the characters. But we’ve also seen modern-day comic book creators talk about this issue, with folks like writer Ed Brubaker (the writer behind the ‘Winter Soldier comic book storyline that directly inspired the film, “Captain America: Winter Soldier”) famously saying that he made more money from his acting cameo in the film than he did from actually creating the Winter Soldier and writing that storyline.
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In a recent newsletter Brubaker published (via CBR), right around the time that “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” debuted on Disney+ (which he had no input on), he wrote, “I’m really happy for Sebastian Stan, who I think is both a great guy and the perfect Bucky/Winter Soldier, and I’m glad to see him getting more screen time finally. Also, Anthony Mackie is amazing as the Falcon, and everyone at Marvel Studios that I’ve ever met (all the way up to Kevin Feige) have been nothing but kind to me… but at the same time, for the most part, all Steve Epting and I have gotten for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there, and over the years that’s become harder and harder to live with.”
So, this lawsuit might not result in the end of Marvel’s ownership of superhero character copyrights, but it might pave the way for these “work-for-hire” creators to get some financial support for creating characters that have literally earned billions of dollars for Marvel and other companies that have been adapting all of these superhero characters in films and TV shows.
In the meantime, make sure if you enjoy these “Avengers” characters in their live-action forms, you take the time to research who actually created these stories and superheroes. Because it reaches farther than just icons like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It’s still going on today.